Worcester blooms in winter

Saturday

Feb 23, 2013 at 6:00 AM

By Steven H. Foskett Jr. TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

It was a nice afternoon for a stroll Friday, and newly appointed U.S. Sen. William “Mo” Cowan appeared to enjoy a tour through the Regional Environmental Council's network of farms and community gardens.

Mr. Cowan's visit, which wrapped up at the REC headquarters on Castle Street, came on the heels of his appointment to the Senate Agriculture Committee. It's the first time a senator from the state has served on the committee since 1879, he said. After touring more rural farm settings in the western part of the state earlier in the day, the senator said it was a nice contrast to get a sense of how urban farming is proliferating in the city.

It's important that urban farming programs such as the REC bring fresh produce to the inner city, and better food choices at younger ages will lead to better nutrition and lower health care costs down the road, Mr. Cowan said. Plus, he added, it is helping reinvigorate the community.

“It's an opportunity to see urban farming, to see how people and communities can come together to make the best use of their resources,” he said.

It was also an opportunity to pick up some REC farm-sourced hot sauce. Mr. Cowan and officials from the state Department of Agricultural Resources, including Commissioner Gregory C. Watson, picked up a bottle.

More snow may be on the way, but Steve Fischer, executive director of the REC, said his organization is busy preparing for spring and summer programs, including Earth Day cleanups, the REC's annual seed and plant sales (seedlings are being grown at the College of the Holy Cross), and the ramping up of the farmers market, which will include a mobile unit.

Mr. Fischer told Mr. Cowan about a pilot program the REC spearheaded in collaboration with Mayor Joseph Petty's office, Worcester Common Ground and Lutheran Social Services to give refugees who resettle in the city a chance to put their farming skills to work by identifying tax-title properties that might be good spots to grow on. He said that in the program's pilot year last year, three Nepali farmers from a one-acre site harvested 1,500 pounds of food they sold at the REC's farmers market.

“We hope to replicate that program across the city,” Mr. Fischer said.

Mr. Fischer said it's important that Mr. Cowan use his appointment to the Agriculture Committee to help support grass-roots agricultural initiatives such as the REC across the country, and to push to make health food access universal.